January 9, 2013 On the Shelf A Printer Called Lethem, and Other News By Sadie Stein Portlanders, start your smug engines: you live in the top city in America for readers. James Joyce in Trieste. Turkey has quietly lifted a ban on some 23,000 books. “The Lethem printer resides in the college’s library, Crossett, where it is used by students to print papers and assignments. Prior to Lethem, the college printers were called Rumi and Thoreau for no discernable reason, as neither went there.”
January 8, 2013 On the Shelf 1984, and Other News By Sadie Stein Check out the new 1984 cover. What do you think? The Thomas Pynchon rumors: a breakdown. How should Shakespeare really sound? New Yorkers are spending more time in libraries … but not to read. Love it or leave it, this is our world: Neruda Cats.
January 7, 2013 On the Shelf The Fitzgerald-Wodehouse Friendship, and Other News By Sadie Stein Robert McCrum: “In the department of lost meetings, one near-miss that’s always fascinated me is the on-off friendship between F. Scott Fitzgerald and P. G. Wodehouse, both of whom came to prominence in America at the end of the Great War.” And so it begins: hot on the heels of best-of 2012, The Millions brings us the most anticipated reads of 2013. New York digests the latest in self-help (or, as Barnes & Noble would have it, self-improvement) so you don’t have to. Can we separate the work of Ted and Sylvia from the myth? One author dishes the dirt on publishing a book.
January 4, 2013 On the Shelf Jolly Writers, and Other News By Sadie Stein Happy Friday. Here are twenty photos of authors whooping it up. By way of balance, a catalogue of authors’ ailments. The end of an era: the Borders flagship sign comes down. In related news, Barnes & Noble reported tepid holiday sales. “There aren’t any obvious candidates for the Nobel Prize and the prize committee is in an unenviable situation.” The lackluster rationale for Steinbeck’s 1962 win. (Lawrence Durrell, meanwhile, “gives a dubious aftertaste … because of [his] monomaniacal preoccupation with erotic complications.”)
January 3, 2013 On the Shelf Literary Resolutions, and Other News By Sadie Stein For indie bookstores, it was a happy holiday. Speaking of—Prairie Lights Bookstore is starting a small press! Tackling Pepys, and other literary resolutions. Related? Literary feuds of 2012! Now open for business: the London Centre for Book Arts.
January 2, 2013 On the Shelf Happy New Year! And Other News By Sadie Stein Take it as shame or motivation: he read 365 books in 2012. More attainable: the year in marginalia. Words people hated in 2012. Still recovering from a rough year? Ten books to get you into 2013. Did you know William Faulkner wrote a children’s book?